Girl claims stranger tried choking her in elementary school school bathroom

A fourth-grade girl claims she was choked by a stranger while in the bathroom at her southeast Houston elementary school, and now police are looking for leads in the case.

The attack has the little girl's father upset that someone would even touch his daughter. She says she was in the bathroom at Kelso Elementary when the unidentified man came after her. Fortunately, she was able to get away.

The fourth grader says the attack left her in tears, as she barely escaped back to her classroom. Administrators moved quickly to track down a suspect but still have few leads.

"She told me that the guy had his hands around her neck like this, and he had his thumb basically on her lips. So that's when she bit," the girl's father, Damien Jones, said.

It was the last type of story Jones expected to hear from his eight-year-old daughter.

Last Thursday, the fourth grader went to the restroom during class and says she was attacked by an older man.

"He told her to come here so she told him no and she tried to run around her, and that's when he grabbed her around her neck, started choking her and she told me that she bit him to get him loose," Jones said.

The girl says she ran back to class and cried out to her teacher.

"She was crying really bad when she went back to class," Jones said.

We contacted HISD about the incident and they sent us the letter the Kelso Elementary principal sent home to parents the same day. It reads in part that "they referred the student to the nurse where she was checked for any injuries."

The letter also read, "crews, locked down the school and secured the premises by checking all restrooms and vacant rooms," and that "the administration retrieved video, but did not see an intruder on camera."

Once the school was cleared by police, the lockdown was lifted. The immediate area was also searched for anyone matching the suspect's description.

As for Jones, he now questions just how secure his daughter's school is.

"I just believe that all elementary school, middle schools and high schools, need higher security no matter what side of town they are on," he said.

An HISD spokesman says the incident is still under investigation. The principal of Kelso Elementary says they are now implementing a buddy system for bathroom breaks.